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A quick look around for some of the more serious defects showed this on the bootlid:

I used the clearcut and the cutting pad from Lake County, I really couldn't get on with that cutting pad! I swapped back to my old ones...

Here is a 50:50 of the boot lid after cutting including the area of where the defect was:

Defect on the NSR quarter:

And cut:

This picture best shows the standard of the work of the valet company!

Cut:

A natural 50:50

Got the OSR cut:

Handle was heavily marked on a replacement door:

Quick cut:

The offside all cut:

Wing wasn't pretty either:

Cut

Then used reflect and the new finish pads:

I was very much impressed with them both!

Nearside refined:

Car done:

I will get the car waxed tomorrow I think... Will have a look at what I want to use, if I can be bothered to do it!

Also, if anyone has any recommendations on a relatively cheap paint I can use for those garage doors it would be appreciated! Pestered the council to do something with them after raising the prices year on year but never carrying out any maintenance on them whatsoever! They said no, asked for the paint to do them myself, they said no...

I am going to do them myself, the solitary painted one is one that a neighbour painted but no longer here to ask what they used!

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Hi Jordan
Really impressed with the finish
Can you advise me on what pads are best to use and also cutting compound ? as I have bought the auto finesse revitalise kit which I tried on my daughters car .This was the 3 stage polish which took me nearly 4 days to complete and the end results were good but wasn't perfect in my eyes
I don't have enough room in my garage to store the car so was looking for my best option on a 1 stage polish > I have read and watched many detailing channels and Scholl S20 black seems to be my best route or do you have a better solution
Thanks in. advance
Terry

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By no means a pro, but I have never been happy with any Auto Finesse product I have tried and have used a fair amount of them. That being said I haven't ever tried their revitalise range...

What machine are you using? I use a Flex PE14-2-150 rotary, my traditional pads are 3m, but my new ones are Lake Country Hybid pads. I couldn't get used to the cutting one as it was much more firm than I am used to working with, despite it being a relatively mild pad in their range.

I have however always opted for a 2 stage approach, with m101 or m105 followed up by m205. On this occasion I used clearcut followed up by reflect, the former on a yellow 3m pad and the latter on a black finishing pad from Lake Country hybrid range.

One step is never something I have looked into, as I have always found the second step to be much more swift than the first stage. Bear in mind though that my paint still has defects in it, you need to be realistic with what you want to achieve. Pictures are easily deceiving in regards to clarity and reflection...

If you want perfection you'll be spending towards triple figures in regards to hours I would imagine, with various grades of paper to flat the paint before polishing it up.

I managed to get all of the above done in a day, but again, bear in mind I am happy to leave a level of defect in the paint and it is nowhere near a professional result.

I would have to look into single stage options, but have seen good reviews from Scholl, although their series of corrective fluids is one of the most complex. I would say that if you're going one stage it is imperative the compound you choose is DAT and not SMAT!

As for best pads, well it is a bit difficult, Lake Country are highly revered, but as I said i didn't get on with one of them... Hexlogic used to be the go to pad, but now it is a minefield, not only of brands but even ranges within them. If you have access to compressed air then go for a microfiber pad selection (you'll need air to clean out the pad in-between panels as a minimum). If you don't you'll need a foam pad, but make sure you have a brush to clean them with to stop the pad getting bogged down with compound (if you didn't do this previously it may go some way to explain why you weren't happy with the result).

Whichever pads you choose, make sure you have at least 3 of them. You'll need to swap them out after a while as they'll need a more in depth clean.

I would go over to Detailing World and have a look through work that has been carried out by the amateurs to look at what combinations have worked for them.

No point looking at the pro results (well, there is, it is amazing) as the likelihood of you achieving such a result is almost non-existent. That being said dont be discouraged as your car will still loom better than 95% as most people don't bother going to such lengths for paint clarity!

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Thanks Jordan
I only have a DA6 at the moment using the auto finesse pads .I will have a look at lake country but the choice out there is unbelievable and very confusing
I know it will depend on machine but what sort of paint is the on the jag and what pad would be good for the DA
Your car has come on leaps and bounds since your ownership and a credit to you

This is my Sportbrake that I picked up yesterday. So far it has had a good internal clean and will have a bath and polish on my next few days off.
The intention is to keep it clean and shiny while slowly making it OEM+ as funds allow.
Pics copied from the introduce yourself thread:

Finally found a badge for the rear of my car after trying that awful looking RRS badge last year.
It's a larger version of the R-Sport badge found on the power vents. It's almost twice the size and fits perfectly. Quality isn't quite the same as the JLR version but I'm still pretty pleased...

Well, seeing as my Introduce Yourself thread has been done to death, I thought it was about time I started a Gallery thread.
I had some time to fettle with the car today.
First step was to replace the number plate filament bulbs with LED's. I also replaced the bulbs on the vanity mirrors with...

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